Communications, Science, and Technology Minister Boyce Sebetela suspended
the phone-in segment of "Masa-e-sele" (Morning has broken), a popular morning
program on state-run Radio Botswana.

According to the independent weekly
Mmegi (The Reporter), Sebetela said that the phone-in program had "lost
direction and was out of touch with journalistic etiquette." He also called the
program "one-sided," according to the local chapter of the Media Institute of
Southern Africa (MISA). The African Church Information Service quoted Sebetela
as saying that he had stopped "this program because bad language was flowing from
callers." In an interview with the United Nation's IRIN news agency, Sebetela
said that the program had been suspended because the anchors were not knowledgeable
enough to discuss "important technical information like the pay structure of government
and voter apathy."

However, local journalists suspect that the segment
of the show was suspended because the ruling Botswana Democratic Party saw it
as too critical of the government in the run-up to general elections, scheduled
for 2004. According to MISA, after President Festus Mogae's State of the Nation
address on November 10, "Masa-a-sele" invited listeners to comment on his speech
on-air. Local journalists say that people who called in criticized the president
and the ruling party.